Flight The Complete Series
by Ted Sadler
Summary: Earth vs The O'Neill's? No Contest!
1. Flight

Title: Flight Author: Ted Sadler Rating: PG-15 Category: Romance, Action/Adventure Warnings: sexual situations Pairings: Sam/Jack  
  
With thanks to Sally Murphy for inspiration and writing a part.  
  
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
  
Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Ted Sadler  
Flight  
  
"What do you mean, that's not allowed?" said Jonas, looking back from his laptop. "They asked me to check on the security of the filing system, so what's wrong with actually reading the files? Particularly the ones that concern ourselves."  
  
"It's just not right." replied Sam, standing behind him. "Besides, we might see things that would be uncomfortable to live with." But she couldn't deny the feeling of intense curiosity that swept through her.  
  
"Did you know that General Hammond ordered Teal'c to make regular progress reports on SG-1 two years ago?" continued Jonas, unabashed. "And he's done that every quarter. Teal'c has been a soldier and commander for longer than the rest of SG-1 put together, so you can see how the General would value his opinion. Do you realise that the Colonel and the General intend for you to take command of SG-1 soon?"  
  
Sam's immediate reaction was to protest at taking any further steps down this road, but Jonas' next words were like a jolt of electricity.  
  
"The Colonel's on his way out sooner than he thinks, anyway." He took a deep breath and decided to force the pace of things a little. "And when he's gone, Sam, I was hoping that you and I could, well, find ourselves in a situation where we could get to know each other a little better. Or a lot better, eventually."  
  
Sam stepped back in shock. She thought she'd been so careful about concealing any looks, or other hints that she cared for Jack 'more than she was supposed to'. She had been very vigilant, and wondered sometimes whether Jack himself had seen the rare signals. Jonas seemed to have picked up on them, though.  
  
She liked Jonas, and felt sorry that he was alone, cut off from his family on his own world, and with only SG-1 as close friends. But she had noticed the change in the young man's behaviour towards her since an old lady had mistaken them for a couple, and she had held his hand briefly to stop him revealing the truth of their mission. But she couldn't bring herself to smash his hopes or trample on his feelings just like that, and took the obvious course of action.  
  
"OK, so show me one of Teal'c's reports, then." she replied in a firm voice. Jonas moved and clicked the mouse a few times, and the page appeared.  
  
"This one was written after our last encounter with the Replicators." said Jonas. Sam skipped over the headings to the main text.  
  
'For details of the encounter, see relevant mission report.  
  
Observations on SG-1 team status:  
  
Colonel O'NEILL.  
  
O'NEILL's continuing leadership skills remain undiminished. He immediately grasped the means of containing the threat and ordered Major CARTER to re-set the timer to prevent any escape of the enemy. However, post-mission, he as usual allowed the other team members to fully express their opinions and feelings and took it upon himself to shoulder any guilt they may have felt. He is alone among the SG team commanders in allowing such behaviour in subordinates. I fear that his recent torture by the GOA'ULD is beginning to leave him mentally unprepared to continue to carry the feelings of others to this extent.  
  
Major CARTER  
  
CARTER displayed her usual technical brilliance and the mission success was mainly due to her actions. She overcame a slight emotional attachment to the humanoid REPLICATOR (as a result of the sincerity he/it displayed) when O'NEILL ordered her to shorten the timer delay. Post-mission she continued to feel guilty over what she perceived as deceit, but eventually saw the situation in its true perspective, with O'NEILL's help. I believe she will have to face up to taking decisions like this in a more detached manner in future, if she is to command a unit.  
  
Jonas QUINN  
  
QUINN is a brave, headstrong individual who will in time become a formidable asset to the SGC in a scientific role. We can, for the time being, excuse his emotional outbursts because of his relative youth and inexperience. He remains a little afraid of O'NEILL but wants to become accepted by him. I hope that his fear does not turn into negative feelings.  
  
I remain proud and honoured to call them my friends.  
  
Teal'c.'  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Seeing that she had finished reading, Jonas clicked on another file named 'O'Neill - Carter - Security'.  
  
'From: NID HQ Commandant's Office To: HAMMOND G., General, CO SGC Subject: O'NEILL, J. & CARTER, S.: Security Concerns  
  
As we instructed you at our recent meeting, you are required to take action to contain the potential security breaches resulting from the past and present actions of O'NEILL (see file NID/SGC/ON/426). You are authorized to take any or all of the following steps:  
  
Substitution of his current course of anti-depressant drugs by a placebo to force a medical retirement. Offer immediate retirement in lieu of facing charges of insubordination. Placement on high-risk missions with little or no prospect of return.  
  
We emphasize that TWEP will be the only option available if the threat to National Security that he represents cannot be neutralized by your actions.  
  
You are also required to maintain surveillance of Major CARTER to ensure that any personal loyalty to O'NEILL does not lead to additional problems. TWEP is not an option that we take lightly, but we may have no choice but to apply it to all concerned if necessary.'  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The alarm bells ringing in Sam's head dictated her next actions. "Close the files, Jonas." she said. "Thank you for alerting me to them, but I really don't want to see any more. Make your security report, but don't mention me seeing them. Or yourself, for that matter. Now excuse me, I have some urgent matters to take care of." She started walking towards the door.  
  
"I'll see you for dinner tonight, then." said Jonas. "Eight o'clock, like we arranged?"  
  
"No, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to make it." replied Sam, hurriedly. "I have a report to deliver."  
  
"Tomorrow, then?"  
  
"No, sorry, I'll be too busy for a while." she lied, exiting the door and heading straight for her own laboratory. Jonas stared wistfully after her.  
  
She collected a small electrical device from a cupboard, found her personal CD player in a drawer and placed the device inside it. After closing down her computer and changing into street clothes in the locker room, she left the SGC and drove to Colorado Springs. Three hours later, in the early evening, she walked up to the Colonel's house and rang the doorbell.  
  
"Carter!" exclaimed Jack. "This is a pleasant sur..."  
  
"Good evening, sir!" interrupted Sam. "You asked me to bring the report over tonight, remember?" She pushed past him and walked straight into his lounge, taking out her CD player and placing it on the coffee table. Jack closed the door, followed her in and saw her push a button on the player. He heard a very faint but persistent whistle. Black ops training had taught him what an anti-listening device was, so he phrased his first words carefully.  
  
"Thank you, Major. I remember now. Hope it's not too inconvenient for you. I know you had a dinner engagement planned." Sam looked at him and saw the intenseness in his eyes. Just how much had Jonas been talking to him about her?  
  
Sam deposited a sheaf of papers on the coffee table. Jack only had to glance at the front page title: "Gravitational Enhancement Properties of Object 2/13B from P4L-661" to know that this was also part of her cover story. She knew that the anti-listening device was good, but not perfect, so she hoped that he would take the hint to move the conversation to a safe location.  
  
Jack immediately invited her not to miss out on dinner, and they called a cab to take them to a restaurant in a nearby shopping mall. He then called another cab from a public phone in the mall and they eventually arrived at a restaurant on the other side of town. Jack was sure that they hadn't been followed.  
  
"Carter, what's up?" he said after they had ordered.  
  
"What does TWEP mean, sir?"  
  
Jack looked shocked. "What do you think it means, Sam? And how did you come across it?"  
  
"Jonas was doing a security check on the computer files and showed me a couple of the reports. There was an NID memo about you and me being security threats, and General Hammond was being ordered to end your career by one means or another. It said that TWEP was an option. I have no idea what it means - 'Transfer with Early Pension'? But that doesn't sound right."  
  
"It's an old CIA term." explained Jack. "Terminate With Extreme Prejudice. In other words, a car crash, a house fire, a boating accident or a bullet in the head. Any way you look at it you're dead. Meant for me if I don't respond correctly, I assume?"  
  
"And me too, if I allow my *personal loyalty* to you to keep me from being a good soldier." said Sam. She reached into her handbag. "Oh, by the way, you should throw away all the drugs you've been given from the infirmary. They've probably switched them for chalk powder or something. I got you a few months supply of Prozac from three different drugstores earlier." She passed across the paper bags and he stuffed them into his coat pockets. "I'm assuming that you're still recovering from what Ba'al did, but you've got something else now to help you get over it."  
  
Jack realised that she had crossed a very substantial line to help him, and looked up at her, a lump in his throat. "What's that?"  
  
"Me." replied Sam, staring into his eyes. "I realised when I saw the memo that you mean more to me now than when we were in that room together. But we got so good at pretending, I was beginning to think you didn't feel the same way any more. But even if you don't, I'm not going to stand by and see them do this to you."  
  
"God, Sam, I thought you and Jonas were getting close, so I kept away. I just wanted you to be happy." He paused, and continued "You really would be better off keeping well away from me now. Your career.."  
  
Sam reached across the table, took his hand in both of hers, and said quietly, "I'm in love with you Jack. My career won't mean that much any more if you're not around." She couldn't help the tears that started to run slowly down her cheeks.  
  
Jack lifted up her hands and placed his lips gently on them. He smiled. "You've got to be tough to come with me now. There's no hiding place for me on this world, and a hell of a long way to go to find somewhere safe. But if that's what you want, I'll never give you cause to doubt me. I've already been in love with you for four years, five months and er, ten days. Are you really sure?"  
  
Sam just smiled back and nodded her head.  
  
"Can I serve your soup now, folks?" enquired the waiter, who had been standing back to catch them at the right moment. "Oh, and by the way, we serve free champagne for engagements."  
  
The rest of the evening was spent quietly planning their next steps - indeed their new life. Sam was surprised to learn that Jack had prepared a personal escape route and refined it over the years - another result of time in black ops, she supposed.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Events happened fast the next day. SG-1 was scheduled only to retrieve a MALP that was to be sent through the Stargate as part of Sam's wormhole stabilisation test program. In the very early hours, Sam and Jack had arrived separately on base, and she disabled a security camera in the assembly area. They quickly loaded the MALP's compartments with field rations, a compass, a sextant and other survival essentials.  
  
When the time came to fetch the MALP, no-one suspected how events would unfold. Sam's heart was hammering so hard as they stood by the ramp, she felt sure that they would be stopped at any moment. Jack looked bored and impassive as usual, so she tried hard to copy his expression. Then finally, SG-1 calmly walked through the Event Horizon and seconds later, the wormhole closed.  
  
Teal'c was surprised to hear the sound of a Zat gun discharging as he examined the MALP on the distant planet. He looked round and saw Jonas laying in a crumpled heap, with Jack standing over him, the gun still in his hand. Sam stood behind him, not moving.  
  
"O'Neill!" cried Teal'c. "What have you done?"  
  
Jack replaced his gun in its holster and turned to face his friend. "Teal'c, old buddy, do you remember when I told you that one day I might have to disappear suddenly, to where the NID couldn't find me?" Teal'c nodded. "Well, today's the day, and Sam is coming with me. It's that, or a life of hiding on Earth. At least out here we can be free and still fight the Goa'uld if we're needed."  
  
"I suspected that such a time was upon you." replied Teal'c. "NID agents have been particularly active in asking questions about the two of you recently. It is not too soon to leave. I will miss both of you greatly; you have been the closest, truest friends of my life." He bowed his head and grasped Jack's arm in a firm farewell gesture, and shared a long hug with Sam.  
  
"Leave a message with the Asgard when you feel it's safe to contact us." said Jack. "Now, you know what to do? Got your story straight? Look after Jonas when you get back to the SGC, and stay away from the Gate Room on December 25, like we discussed before, OK?"  
  
Teal'c nodded his understanding and agreement, and stood stoically as Jack zatted him into unconsciousness beside Jonas. Then quickly, they turned the MALP, Sam dialled another Gate address and they passed through the new wormhole, Jack steering the machine and Sam following. They repeated this procedure another six times before arriving at their final destination.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Their new 'home' was two days walk from the Stargate, on a lush green planet orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani. Jack had told Sam how the Asgard had responded to his plea for help, not long after they first became indebted to him. They had formed a dwelling for him in the side of a hill overlooking a large plain, on a protected planet unknown to the Goa'uld. Jack had not seen the place, but had been assured that it would be equipped to support human needs.  
  
As they walked up the final hill, Sam caught sight of a metallic window frame protruding slightly from the slope, below a rocky outcrop. After spending last night sleeping in Jack's arms in a tent, Sam wondered just how strange their first real night together would be. Would there even be a bed?  
  
Jack soon found the door, which was activated by his palm print on an adjacent panel. He surprised Sam by lifting her suddenly off her feet and carrying her across the threshold. "I know we're not married, and the realtor who sold me this house was a little strange," said Jack, "but welcome home, Sam!" She laughed and kissed him hard before he put her down.  
  
To Jack's surprise, his description to the Asgard of what a house interior should look like had been followed fairly closely. Except of course, just like the SGC, everything was coloured a dull grey. Sam's cry of delight when she found a workshop at the back, equipped with various tools and an Asgard computer terminal, removed one of Jack's worries about how well she would accept her new circumstances.  
  
After finding out how things worked, and adjusting the heating to a comfortable level, they ate and relaxed.  
  
"Jack, stop asking if I've got any regrets." said Sam. "You're not the only lucky one to be here, you know. I've got you just as much as you've got me. Sure I'll miss people at home, but staying was no option. One day we'll see them again."  
  
"Sorry, Wilma." said Jack. "Coming to bed now?"  
  
"I thought you'd never ask, Fred." she replied.  
  
After the years of tension between them and the rush of recent events, there was hardly a chance that their first time together would be spectacular, and so it proved. It was in turn, embarrassing, amusing, exploratory, and fun and over rather quickly, but for all that a fond memory that neither would forget, ever. However the second time was much more satisfying and the third really quite intense.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The Asgard communicator in Sam's workshop (it had quickly become *her* workshop) sprang into life and the familiar alien image appeared.  
  
"Major Carter, I am surprised but very pleased to see that you are with Colonel O'Neill." said Thor. "Is he there?"  
  
"Just coming!" called Jack, entering the room. He stood behind her and placed an arm around her shoulders.  
  
"It is now time to carry out the final part of your original request." stated Thor. "I just wish to check that temporarily closing down the Earth Stargate is still what you want to happen."  
  
"Yes, it is." replied Jack. "Sam and I agree on this. All the while access to Earth remains in the hands of a small, secretive power group, there is always a risk of unjust actions and untold consequences in dealing with other planets. It's not just to stop them looking for us. I hope that this will force them to make the Stargate public knowledge on Earth."  
  
"The Asgard High Council concurs, O'Neill. Watch the screen."  
  
They saw an Asgard ship drop an active Stargate into the ocean, followed by a few metal canisters. The view switched to an underwater camera chasing the glowing ring down into a deep chasm on the sea bed. As it descended, the flow of sea water through the event horizon increased as the pressure rose to unimaginable levels. The metal canisters followed it down and split open, discharging tonnes of metal foil strips and powder into the wormhole. 'Tinsel', Jack had called it. 'Our Christmas present to the NID'.  
  
In the SGC control room, the only two people present at 3am on Christmas morning looked up in alarm as jets of water suddenly appeared all round the edge of the closed iris. Before they had time to sound the alarm or close the blast doors, they saw the iris bulge inwards and a solid jet of water appear through the widening hole in the centre. The speed of the jet increased almost instantly to shatter the control room windows, and they ran for the rear emergency exit. Soon, metal strips and powder added to the damage that salt water was already doing, and shorted out all the electrical equipment it came into contact with. The level was completely filled within moments, but the water's progress was slower to the higher floors as it found its way up all the stairs, elevator shafts and service access tunnels.  
  
By the time the wormhole closed 38 minutes later, the whole of Cheyenne Mountain was flooded from the basement through to level 17. It would take months to pump it out and salvage what they could. And there was no way that news of such an event could be kept completely out of the public eye.  
  
Jack had deliberately chosen this date for the action, to minimise casualties in the almost-deserted base. He knew also that they probably wouldn't risk placing the Stargate in such a vulnerable location again.  
  
He felt bad about doing it for a while, but the emotion disappeared when he and Sam started travelling through the Stargate again, making contact with trusted friends in other races, and seeking out Jacob Carter. Life was never going to be dull, as their children would fondly remember in later life.  
  
But that's another story.. 


	2. Landed

Landed  
  
"Daddy?" asked Kathrin O'Neill.  
  
"Yes, sweetheart?" replied Jack, his arm around his six-year old daughter as she snuggled beside him on the sofa. Although her younger brother Bart had been asleep for half an hour, she was still full of beans. The log fire was burning bright in front of them and there was no way he would be able to drift off to sleep this evening, with her in such an inquisitive mood. He moved his feet carefully to avoid waking Homer, their four-year old Earth mongrel-cross-alien quadruped from Betelgeuse.  
  
"Has mom always been a teacher? It's so dull learning how to use numbers. The other kids at school say that Mrs. O'Neill's lessons are very hard. Doesn't she ever do anything else?"  
  
"Well, if you watch carefully, you might see her spin round very fast and turn into Major Carter, secret agent and mistress of the universe."  
  
Sam, listening as she sat at the kitchen table in the adjoining room, smiled in spite of herself. Jack was officially in the dog house, as he had quite rudely complained about her bringing home her computer again from the workshop. She could only use it for two hours anyway until the batteries ran down, as the log cabin houses had no electricity.  
  
The way he phrased it had irritated her and so she had pointedly started work to spite him. It was all for him anyway, to meet the latest request for help from the Asgard that he had agreed to. In the last seven years they had travelled off-world three times to assist, and there seemed to be no end to their need for salvation. For such a technically smart people, Jack could run rings round them in strategy and the ability to rapidly re- think a situation when plans went wrong. And he kept insisting that he was the dumb one.  
  
"What was that funny talk you and mom were making yesterday up in the hill? You know, when the little grey men appeared on the picture screen."  
  
"Oh, that. It's called 'English', and it's what we used to speak all the time before your mom and I came to this world. And the place in the hill? That's where we lived at first. The little grey men made it for us."  
  
"Why don't we live there any more?"  
  
"Well, the little grey men knew all about making houses for themselves, but not so much about humans. Even though it kept us safe for a while, it wasn't really very easy living there."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Well, the little grey men - they're called 'The Asgard', by the way - made us useful rooms and a nice bed and cooker, but they didn't quite understand how we do things. Mom had that really useful workshop that she uses all the time, but the first things she had to make were a machine to wash our clothes and a cleaner that sucks up dirt off the floor. She said it wasn't why she learned astrophysics. Sorry, I mean how the stars and sky work."  
  
"Is that why you left?"  
  
"No, we left because we knew you were going to arrive in the world, and we wanted you to be here in the village so that you could play with the other children as you grew up."  
  
"If that funny talk was 'English'," continued their daughter, "what do you call the words we're using now?"  
  
"Latin." said Jack. ". And it's what everyone here speaks and writes. It was around when the Ancients built the Stargates."  
  
"Is that when you learned it, then?" Jack distinctly heard a giggle from the kitchen.  
  
"No, Uncle Teal'c and I learned it a time loop, so we could save everyone from living the same day over and over. Hey! I also learned how to make pottery and how to kiss your mom."  
  
"Is that how you learned to make pots and plates for everyone in the village now?  
  
"Sure is! They had to bring them in from a long way away before I had my workshop."  
  
"Why haven't you kissed mom this week?"  
  
Jack was not ready for the sudden change in the direction of the questions. "For crying out loud!" he blustered, which sounded more poetic in Latin. "She's upset with me for complaining about bringing her computer home again. But I know I'm wrong. I just forgot that helping the Asgard is something she wants to do, even though I think we should say 'no' this time. We've done too much for them already."  
  
For someone who supposedly wasn't listening, Sam's attention was anywhere but on the keyboard and screen. The realisation dawned on her that they both thought it was what the other wanted. She was about to get up and join her family by the fire, when the next question took her completely by surprise, and she sat frozen to the spot.  
  
"Are you really too old and boring for mom?"  
  
"What? Is that what she said?"  
  
"No, it was Loran."  
  
"What, Loran the art and history teacher at school? He said that to you?"  
  
"Well, he said it in the rest-time to another teacher and I heard him."  
  
"Was mom there at the time?"  
  
"No, she was taking her numbers class. I don't think he said it to her. But he did say that he would be a better person for her. Daddy, I don't like him very much. You won't let him come and live here with mom, will you?"  
  
Jack's heart stood still for a moment and he was at a loss for words. Finally he said in a low voice, "Your mom's a very lovely and clever woman, Kathrin, and you'll be just as nice when you grow up. Lots of men will like you, and you'll be able to choose the ones you want to be with. It won't matter what the other ones want."  
  
Before Kathrin could continue, her mother swept in, lifted her up and announced bed-time, leaving Jack staring thoughtfully into the fire. She returned a few minutes later to find that he hadn't moved. She sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder.  
  
"Jack, you're an idiot!" she said in English, staring into the fire as well. "Why didn't you just tell her that you won't let anyone come and take your place?"  
  
"I. You. Sam, if you're really.. I mean, I am older than you."  
  
"You're an idiot, Jack." she repeated. "A magnificent, wonderful, sarcastic, caring idiot. You've saved countless people on different worlds, and if the Earth nations ever stop fighting long enough to agree how to re- open their Stargate, we'll be welcomed back there as well. Not that I particularly want to go back to mass consumerism and pollution. And if the Goa'uld came tomorrow, I'd die knowing that my life has never been better than it is right now."  
  
"Love you, Sam." whispered Jack, raising his arm to put round her shoulders.  
  
"Why don't you go and shave right now? There's enough hot water." said Sam.  
  
"At this time of night? Why?"  
  
"So I can show just how turned on I get by boring older men. And I don't want Major Carter to have any chafing tomorrow when she puts on her uniform on a mission to splatter a history teacher over the playground."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX 


	3. Grounded

Grounded  
  
Jack felt his eyes drooping. He sighed, sitting up higher in the bed. 'If you don't come out soon, Sam, I'm not going to make it.' Just when he felt his eyes closing, he heard the toilet flush, signalling her return. He heard the door open, and heard her opening and shutting the medicine cabinet a couple of times, but still no appearance.  
  
"Uh, Sam, I'm losing steam here, want to get your butt in here already?"  
  
Sam came out of the bathroom, tossing her robe on a chair along the way as she strolled towards the bed. "Oh, Jack, I love it when you talk dirty to me," she said, smiling, turning down the oil lamp before climbing into bed.  
  
She snuggled close to him, reaching up to kiss him quickly on the lips. She paused, reaching out to caress his face. "Mmmmm, I love it too when you're clean shaven."  
  
Jack chuckled. "Well, it felt like a prerequisite for this," he said, pulling her closer against his body. The perfume she was wearing especially for tonight was driving him crazy already.  
  
"The only prerequisite for you, Jack, is to show up," she replied, bringing his face down for a sensual kiss.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
It never ceased to amaze him what this woman could do to him, Jack thought, as he snuggled against his wife's slightly sweaty form. He smiled, hearing her sigh. He recognized that sigh. It meant that she was satisfied. He grinned; more than satisfied.  
  
"Jack," she mumbled, running her hand seductively down his back.  
  
"Yeah?" he replied, running his own hand down her back to her backside and squeezing. Her appreciative moan made him smile.  
  
"God..." she breathed.  
  
"What?"  
  
"What what?"  
  
"Why'd you say God?"  
  
"I just can't believe how much control you still have over me, Mr. O'Neill," she said, slowly running her hand across his bottom. His answering groan spread a seductive smile across her face.  
  
"Yeah, well..." He moaned again, as she grasped his bottom and pulled him intimately against her. "You've got some incredible control over me yourself, Mrs. O'Neill."  
  
Minutes passed in companiable silence as their hands and mouths sensually explored the other.  
  
"Jack," she muttered.  
  
"Hmmm?" he replied, trailing his tongue along her neck to her earlobe, before taking it into his mouth and suckling lightly.  
  
"I'm happy."  
  
He pulled back a little, looking at her face. "What?"  
  
She sighed, scrunching down to rest her head on his chest. "I love our life."  
  
"Me too, baby," he said, resuming his gentle caresses.  
  
"It's just..."  
  
"It's just what, babe?"  
  
"It's just..." She sighed, pulling his closer and hugging him briefly.  
  
"Sam?"  
  
"I have a wonderful life, Jack. Two great and happy kids, and a loving and sexy husband." She heard him chuckle. "I just wanted you to know that you've given me a happy and fulfilling life, Jack. I just wanted to thank you for that."  
  
He closed his eyes a moment. "Sam, believe me, you've given me much more in return. You're the best thing to ever happen to me, Sam." She pulled him tighter against her.  
  
They lay quietly together a few moments, holding the other tight.  
  
"Thank you, Mr. O'Neill."  
  
"Back atcha, Mrs. O'Neill."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Often, on the occasions when they had enjoyed each other the night before, one of two things would happen. Either of them would wake at dawn, and start a chain reaction of holding, squeezing, caressing which the other would respond to sooner or later, leading to the inevitable. Alternatively, they would wake to find that one or sometimes two junior O'Neill's had silently climbed in during the night to be found sound asleep between them. Fortunately the dog only rarely joined them.  
  
Sam woke to see their son Bart facing her, fast asleep against his father. Jack lay behind him, his head propped up on one hand, smiling at her. In that instant she knew that the loving words they had spoken last night could not possibly describe how good this moment really was, so she just lay there smiling back at them, entwining her fingers with Jack's, drawing them to her lips.  
  
The sound of someone knocking loudly on their door at this hour was not usual, though, and Jack got up quickly to attend to it. He opened the door to see Jacob Carter unsaddling a horse and setting about watering it.  
  
"Jack!" cried Jacob. "Good to see you! Got breakfast on the go yet?"  
  
Jack stood ruffling his hair, still a little taken aback by his father-in- law's early morning arrival. He must have travelled at night from the Stargate, not something many people did on this world. This wasn't just a social visit, then.  
  
Sam dressed quickly at the sounds of activity downstairs and greeted her father with a warm hug. "Dad!" She got no further before the kids and the dog rushed up to him as well.  
  
Jacob was quickly enrolled into the morning routines of getting the kitchen fire going, breakfasting and getting the children off to the village school. Sam was not due to take lessons until later in the day, so she returned a little later to find Jack and her father sitting at the table, drinking the local beverage, which Jacob had described as more like tea than coffee, but not quite either.  
  
"So, Jacob?" asked Jack.  
  
Jacob's face lost the real warmth he had felt on seeing his family, and he started. "I won't exaggerate, Jack. The situation back on Earth has reached a critical point and it's quite possible that a full-scale war will break out over access to the Stargate. To cut to the chase, I need you to come back and try to knock some sense into politicians in several countries."  
  
"Oh, nothing major, then." quipped Jack. "Just how do I do that, remind me, will ya? The last time we were there was when Sam found out about the NID plan to shut me down, as I recall."  
  
"Jack, this has got to come from you, not a non-human. You can appear on a world-wide TV broadcast and tell what the view looks like from this side of the universe, not from the side of one Earth government or another. It may not ultimately make a difference, but you started this when you flooded the Stargate and blew away the great secret. Will you ever forgive yourself if you don't try?"  
  
Jack had no answer, and Sam knew it just as well. "Pity the soul of Copernicus." he sighed, drawing a wry smile from his wife. They spent the rest of the morning planning how to make the trip.  
  
Jacob sat on his horse, holding Jack's mount, while his daughter and son-in- law said their goodbyes. Unlike their missions in the old days on SG-1, Sam and Jack felt the full sadness of parting and the dread that, for some reason, it might be for the last time. The feeling had got worse on each of the three missions they had undertaken from their exile on this world to help the Asgard, and this time was definitely the last, they vowed.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
By nightfall Jack and Jacob had reached the Stargate. Just two hours later, Jack found himself walking from a Tel'tak to a CNN field broadcast caravan. His total surprise at seeing the person who greeted him had not disappeared by the time he sat in front of the cameras, as the live broadcast was beginning.  
  
"We're rolling", said a disembodied voice.  
  
"Good evening, world. I'm Jonas Quinn, Chief Science and Weather Correspondent for CNN International. It's my special privilege tonight to bring you a live interview with the man who indirectly caused the Stargate to become public knowledge, Colonel Jack O'Neill, of the United States Air Force." He paused briefly before continuing.  
  
"The tension that exists in the world today is perhaps the inevitable result of one nation, it happens to be the USA this time, trying to keep secret something so fundamentally important to the whole world. As we speak, several countries are making preparations for armed conflict, to establish what they see as their right to have free access to the Galactic portal still buried in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, under the total control of the US military.  
  
The public revelations of the last few years - the vast network of Earth- like planets connected by Stargates, and the existence of alien races that represent friend and foe to us - have failed to unite this world. Whatever your viewpoint, apart from the isolationist groups who want to bury the gate, from the missionary societies of various religions who would use it to preach their gospels, to the expansionists who want to emigrate from our overcrowded world, free access to interstellar travel is seen as a right, not a privilege."  
  
Jonas turned to face Jack. "Colonel O'Neill, am I correct in thinking that the events of your sudden disappearance seven years ago, and the flooding of the Colorado Stargate from the sea bed of another world a short time later were connected in some way?"  
  
"Er, yes Jonas, they were. I wanted to show that the Stargate wasn't invulnerable, but not to disable it so completely that the Earth would remain defenceless against the Goa'uld. I reckoned that trying to dispose of that amount of sea water in the middle of Colorado would arouse suspicions, and maybe lead to investigations into what was going on inside the mountain. Seems it worked. Also, I didn't believe that a secret government agency of the USA should be the sole representative of the whole Earth. Nor should any one nation, come to that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Look at it this way. There are more stars visible in the sky than all the grains of sand on Earth. And more galaxies than stars. So far we think there are around 26,000 planets with Stargates, but that's a guess and there could be many times more. It should matter to everyone on Earth who or what comes and goes through this needle's eye of a communication channel.  
  
And just try to see it from the other side. How many of those other societies out there could give a damn if humanity wiped itself out arguing over domestic matters? Some worlds we've seen have already done that to themselves. It's time for our people involved in international politics to grow up and start acting like they want a future for the planet."  
  
The interview continued with questions from Jonas about the varied races that exist and the threat posed by the Goa'uld, with short but honest answers from Jack, who was really impressed with his former team member's professionalism as a TV presenter and interviewer. It seemed that Jonas had found a satisfying outlet for his immense ability to acquire knowledge.  
  
Jonas concluded his broadcast. "So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If you care how your government representatives handle this crisis, then make your views known to them. This is Jonas Quinn, for CNN International, October 8th 2009."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"So, Jack, where to now?" said Jonas, as they walked away from the caravan. "If you've got the time, I'd really like to catch up on how you're doing."  
  
"Love to, Jonas, but I can't take the risk of."  
  
"Being arrested as a wanted criminal?" came a deep voice from behind them. They spun round to see two dark-suited men carrying zats. One of them pointed his at Jonas and held it up to fire.  
  
"Oh no, not again!" sighed Jonas before the blue fire encircled him and he collapsed to the ground. Jack stood still and stared at his pursuers.  
  
"Colonel O'Neill, you are under arrest on charges of desertion from the US Air Force, being absent without leave, and for the kidnapping and abduction of Major Samantha Carter, USAF. Other charges relating to National Security matters may follow."  
  
Jacob Carter, watching through binoculars in the Tel'tak, had no option but to immediately engage the engines and climb as rapidly out of the atmosphere as he could.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Sam had never experienced such anxiety in her whole life. Three days after he had left, there was still no word from Jack or her father. She therefore let her maths class in the school out slightly early when her home-built pager signalled that the Asgard communicator in their former residence was active. After arranging for their children to stay with a neighbour, she hurried on foot from the village, climbing the winding path to the house, where she arrived breathless some 45 minutes later. She rushed straight through and started the two-way comms sequencer.  
  
An image of her father shimmered into steadiness and she searched his face, looking for an expression of satisfaction or hope, but found none. "Dad? What's happening?"  
  
"Sammy, I don't know how to tell you." He paused, and Sam thought that his symbiote was going to take over, but Jacob remained in control. "Jonas Quinn - he's now a news chief with CNN, by the way, interviewed Jack on a global TV program and it went just great. But on their way out, Jonas got zapped and Jack was taken away by two US agents. Seems like they *arrested* him. Anyway, he's gone missing."  
  
"What do you mean, gone missing? How do they know they were Americans that took him?"  
  
"Well, the news people asked about Jack being taken and the authorities denied all knowledge of it. So then they broadcast a clip on TV from the trailer security camera which clearly showed Jonas being zatted and Jack knocked to the ground and being dragged into a limo. No other Earth nation has zats, as far as we know."  
  
"So they're denying that they've got him?"  
  
"Not any more. The news people issued a writ of habeas corpus against the Attorney General. After a days' delay, they claimed that there had been 'an administrative oversight' and that he was being held by the NID before being handed over to the Air Force, to answer charges of desertion and kidnapping you seven years ago. You want to tell me about that one, Sam?"  
  
Sam had to think for a moment. "Oh, yeah. When we skipped out, Jack insisted that we left the impression that I'd been taken against my will, in case we didn't get far and there'd be an out for me. You know Jack... You'd think that the penny would have dropped when I didn't go back, but I guess not. So where's he now?"  
  
"At some NID Safe House, I suppose. We just don't know. And frankly, I don't know how we're going to get him off the desertion charges. But if you can show the world that you're alive and well, we can probably get the kidnap charges dropped."  
  
"I can help there, Jacob." said a voice off camera. The tracker panned left slightly and Jonas' face came into view. "Hello, Sam. Long time no see."  
  
"Jonas!" cried Sam. "What are you doing there?"  
  
"I left the SGC five years ago, to join the media, after there was nothing left for me to read or catalogue at the SGC. I'm a TV presenter now! Ever heard of a 'News Storm', Sam? No government in recent times has stood up to a concerted campaign by the media, when they think they're on to something."  
  
"No, Jonas, I haven't seen a newspaper or TV in seven years." she replied. 'And I haven't missed them, either.' was the added thought.  
  
"Well, if I can interview you, and you tell how your decision was voluntary, then they'll have no case against him on those grounds. But you will make yourself liable for desertion charges as well."  
  
"I can live with that if it gets Jack back. Frankly, Jonas, we haven't wanted to go back to Earth for several years now. But I can't see how the Air Force will give him back to me willingly. And then there's the little matter of flooding the Stargate, which I suppose he owned up to on TV?"  
  
"Yes, but that's the least of our worries. Jack's appearance and his story has certainly changed the tempo of a build-up towards war. There's a lot more opposition facing governments everywhere over the last couple of days, and the negotiations at the UN are being extended. We can't say that they won't start fighting, but it's a breathing space." A sudden frown passed across Jonas' face, followed by a glimpse of a smile. "Ah.. I nearly forgot something. Just trust me Sam, I think there may be a way out."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"Quiet now! 3..2..1 - we're rolling!" said the voice behind the camera.  
  
"Welcome once again, ladies and gentlemen. This is Jonas Quinn, with Breaking News on the disappearance of Colonel Jack O'Neill after his Earth- shattering interview on this station three days ago.  
  
As our security camera shows, the Colonel was taken by two US Government agents as he left that interview. We'll just run that scene again to remind ourselves of what took place. Ah, yes, there's yours truly being fired on with an alien weapon, and I can tell you that it hurts just as much as you think it does. And there's Colonel O'Neill. You've got to admire the way the two agents anticipate that he's going to resist arrest, by the expert way they throw him to the ground and kick him like that."  
  
Sam winced as she saw for the first time what had happened. Neither of them was as fit, nor as hardened to violence as they had been in former years. She was glad that their kids weren't watching at the moment.  
  
"After legal moves by this station," continued Jonas, "we learned that Colonel O'Neill is under arrest for desertion and kidnapping. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am interviewing tonight the woman he supposedly kidnapped seven years ago, Major Samantha Carter." He looked away from his camera to where another one was pointing at Sam. "Well, Major, what have you got to say to these events?"  
  
Jonas was surprised to see Sam standing, holding hands with her two children. He knew almost nothing of Sam and Jack's life together. "Good evening, Mr. Quinn. In fact, I'm now Mrs. Jack O'Neill. We were married three months after we escaped, and these are our children, Kathrin and Bart. And those facts alone should tell you that Colonel O'Neill did not kidnap or abduct me. I discovered that his life was under threat from the NID, and just did what I had to."  
  
Recovering quickly from his surprise, Jonas questioned her about the details of her movements seven years before. Sam candidly described how she had seen the NID memo, and how she had not thought twice about helping Jack. As he listened, Jonas remembered - as he had repeatedly done since - that showing her the secret files at the time had been his way of trying to impress her, to get closer to her. How could he have mis-read the situation so badly?  
  
His professional attitude overrode his own feelings (he knew just who he had learned that trick from) as he revealed that copies of the infamous NID memo were now circulating widely amongst the world's press.  
  
Sam refused to reveal any more details of what had happened after their flight from Earth, and so he took the interview to a close. As he signed off, Sam turned away from the camera, shepherding her children away. However she looked back in alarm as a loud crash signalled the studio door opening, and two dark figures burst in, pointing a zat at her. "Stay where you are!" cried the first man, as Jonas dived for cover behind the desk. Sam continued moving away, but not before she saw the bright blue flash as the weapon discharged. Unperturbed, she continued walking, knowing that her holographic image so many light years away in the studio would be immune.  
  
'Those bastards!' she fumed, keeping quiet for her children's sake. 'They thought we were there in the flesh, and fired at me, even with the kids there. Oh, Jack, what are they doing to you now?'  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The world took its usual course over the next few days and the peace negotiations at the UN were no further forward than before Jack's appearance. After various governments issued statements that the USA had no right to withold access to the Stargate, followed by a counter-statement that the world's most powerful nation had a duty to enforce global stability, the crisis broke in the most unexpected manner. It was the interview that - literally - launched Jonas' media career into orbit.  
  
After the usual TV introduction, the special guest spoke. "I am General Jacob Carter, formerly of the US Air Force. I now act as liaison officer to maintain the alliance between the SGC and the Tok'ra, having been host to a symbiote for the last eleven years." His head dipped briefly before his eyes flashed.  
  
"And I am Selmak, now the other side of Jacob Carter. He speaks for two of the greatest allies of Earth, The Asgard and the Tok'ra. Listen carefully to his words. What you decide will have the greatest impact on our fight against the Goa'uld for many thousands of years." His head nodded again, and Jacob resumed.  
  
"It is clear that the nations of Earth do not have trust in each other, and there is no resolution to this conflict in sight. But the Tau'ri are sorely needed to prevent us all being enslaved by the most fearsome race of all. I have come to tell you that the Earth's moon now possesses an extensive set of underground tunnels and chambers, constructed by the Tok'ra. In these, the Asgard have set up a second Stargate, open to all and any nations on Earth who would either fight against the Goa'uld or engage in peaceful activities with other planets.  
  
Access to the new Stargate from Earth will be exclusively by shuttlecraft like the Tel'tak you see behind me. This means that there will be no opportunity for mass emigration, nor embarkation of large armies in one movement. We will exclude nations who show unwarranted belligerence to other peoples. The choice is theirs. All will receive details on the workings of this new, er, service, if you like to think of it as such. The gate in Cheyenne Mountain can continue in operation, either under the sole control of the present authorities, or whatever other arrangement they care to negotiate. But I tell you, neither the Tok'ra nor the Asgard will make treaties with any one Earth nation. This is your opportunity to grow together and survive, or to turn back the clock by hundreds of years.  
  
Oh, and I conclude with a special request to the government of the United States. Colonel Jack O'Neill is regarded by the Asgard as their special ambassador to Earth. They owe him a personal debt of gratitude for assistance both from his time at the SGC and on three occasions since he has been in exile. By helping them, he has also helped you.  
  
It is now common knowledge that he and my daughter fled the Earth for very good personal reasons. I ask you in the name of peace, but more, I admit, as the grandfather of their children, to return him to us. He is no longer a threat to you. Show that you not only wield the greatest influence on this planet, but the degree of humanity that must accompany such power."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Sam had felt awed by her father's speech two days previously. Two nights without sleep, and a few false alarms later, she again sprinted through to the workshop and the Asgard communicator. As Jack's face appeared in the air above the transmission device, she reached out, half expecting to touch him.  
  
"Hey." was all he said, with a grin. It was more than enough. He reached out with the palm of his hand towards the image of hers, as though they could actually touch.  
  
"Hey yourself." was all she could manage through the tears.  
  
After staring in silence at each other for what seemed like minutes, he murmured "Home by tonight, OK? Oh, and an old friend is looking after me. You'll see who. Just a few bruises, nothing more." The image faded before she could respond.  
  
Throughout the day, Kathrin and Bart could tell that their mother was excited by something, and kept asking how long until they would know what. As children everywhere will show, the mere statement that 'Daddy's coming home' wasn't that special to them compared to other days, but Sam's extraordinarily good mood was just too great an opportunity to waste, and anything they wanted - games, sweets or *anything* - was given without argument or hesitation.  
  
Finally, as dusk descended, Sam and the children rushed out of the house to meet the sound of horses arriving. As Jack's feet touched the ground, Sam threw her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder. She drew back as the kids raced in, and Jack knelt down to greet them. "Never again, Jack! Tell me never again!" He wasn't going to argue.  
  
Janet Fraiser smiled down at the scene from her horse, when Sam looked up and noticed her for the first time. As she dismounted, Sam greeted her long- lost friend in much the same manner as she had Jack.  
  
As much as he loved his family, Jack was glad that Sam and Janet would spend the evening catching up with each other. He ached from the beatings after his arrest and wanted nothing more than to rest in his own bed and receive the Doctor's professional attention for a day or two.  
  
He woke when Sam got into bed in the early hours and put her arms around him.  
  
"Janet OK in the spare room?" he mumbled.  
  
"Oh yes. She says you'll be fully active again in a few days. Time enough for you to plan a house extension, anyway."  
  
"Why, have we adopted her?"  
  
"Noooo. But we're going to have another argument about names. No more Simpsons, this time."  
  
"What?"  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 


	4. The Gift

Title: The Gift  
  
The Gift  
  
Five years. That's all it had taken. Five years, and only seven hundred or so Tau'ri lives. Plus a few thousand free Jaffa and a few hundred Tok'ra, but the Tau'ri had never worried too much about other races' casualty statistics. Neither had the Jaffa nor the Tok'ra, come to that.  
  
The second Stargate on the Moon established by the Asgard and Tok'ra to 'break the monopoly' of the Cheyenne Mountain operation succeeded in its objective when the US Government opened their Stargate to all nations, and the lunar operation was closed down. In the five years since it had been relocated in Nevada, the Stargate had disgorged thousands upon thousands of heavily-armed troops and equipment from many nations to any world where the Goa'uld and their cohorts were active. Where they decimated them. The initially much larger Jaffa armies had no answer to the greater mobility and firepower of Tau'ri troops whose home world had never stopped developing the art of war.  
  
The Deathgliders that had for centuries struck terror into victims on the ground became smoking incandescent arcs falling out of the sky wholesale, taken down by missiles whose speed and accuracy allowed no mercy. And once the Earth scientists had worked out resonance frequencies of Goa'uld force shields, making them about as effective as net curtains, they handed the invention to the Asgard. Suddenly Goa'uld mother ships in space collapsed from within as small explosive charges teleported from Asgard cruisers destroyed vital components.  
  
As Goa'uld numbers diminished in so many places, so did their ability to rule by terror. Nothing turned oppressed populations against their former rulers as fast as the need for revenge, and the carnage was unprecedented in galactic history. The Tok'ra, whom many races branded as untrustworthy by association with symbiotes, accurately predicted the forthcoming hostility and withdrew to seclusion before the war's end.  
  
But even as the victory celebrations were continuing, Tau'ri plans for a "new galactic order" were being put into operation. Not an empire sustained by military might, but the tried and tested method of expansion by commercial dependence to unsuspecting and sometimes naïve peoples, or merely those thirsting for 'more'.  
  
The Nevada Stargate quickly became a business portal for exports of franchises, licences, and a few manufactured goods. Planet after planet saw the familiar illuminated 'M' signs marching away from their Stargates, marking the latest outposts of burgerdom.  
  
To discourage unprofitable enterprises and others who would interfere with commerce, the fee payable for using the Nevada Stargate was established at one million dollars per return trip. Wormholes became the playgrounds of Corporations and the very rich.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
On the third planet of the Epsilon Eridani system, Samantha O'Neill closed the door of their Asgard-built house and workshop earlier than usual and started the daily 3 kilometre journey back down the hill to their village home. After twelve years on this world, she no longer considered it unusual to move straight from working with alien tools and computers back to the almost mediaeval lifestyle of the village community. Not that the work she did there was all futuristic and high-tech: her machine skills meant that she had regular requests from her rural neighbours for making and sharpening saw blades, knives and axe-heads. She was particularly proud of the fact that no-one could match her skills with the saw blades.  
  
She had a routine for winding down from the intense concentration needed to turn multi-dimensional fifth-order equations into Stargate practical control linkages. Most days, it consisted of jogging home and singing out loud, or reciting poetry to herself. But today, a special day, she walked slowly, musing about the ways her life had changed since the day she had without hesitation, helped Jack to escape from Earth with his life. How, from the moment she knew that he had to leave, she had never once thought that she could be anywhere but with him.  
  
Random scenes from their life together lingered in her mind. The realisation that she was pregnant two months after arriving in the Asgard house... The look of surprise and joy on Jack's face when she broke the news.. His simple "Marry me?" as he held her had been the greatest thrill of her life. Only to be surpassed when, over the next seven years, she had held each of their three children for the first time... How moving from the sterile environment of the naquadah-powered alien hillside house to one of the basic log cabin dwellings in the village, and learning another language to fit in with the community, had been less of a challenge than she had feared... Coming into the main room of their gradually expanded (self- built!) house to find Jack playing games, telling stories, or reading to the kids. Big kid himself!  
  
She recalled a particularly heated row (the cause long forgotten) with Jack one evening, when in her anger she had thrown a blanket down to him out of the window and told him to sleep in the barn. She had relented in the middle of the night and went out to fetch him in, only to find that the children's idea of fun had been to creep out of the house and sleep in the straw with daddy and their dog. And how Jack had cried the next day when the dog was killed in an accident.  
  
The presence of a Stargate on the otherwise rural planet had lead to the usual influx of mechanical and electrical marvels brought in by travellers and merchants, but they were truly rare. Wood and oil were the basic fuels for most inhabitants, except in the distant small cities, where rudimentary generating stations provided unreliable electricity supplies to some of the town houses and factories. Countryfolk saw little need for it and rather than turning out to be the 'tree huggers' once feared by Jack, most of them really were practical environmentalists.  
  
If you wanted or needed to travel, you kept a horse. If you were rich, a government license would permit the import of a mechanical conveyance through the Stargate.  
  
For a few years between their first and third children, when Sam had been a full-time maths teacher and Jack's pottery workshop had thrived, the O'Neill's had been slightly better off financially. That is, just a little better off than the state of 'flat stony broke' that existed beforehand and now unfortunately would continue to exist until the local government could afford to pay for her work on the Stargate modifications - the same work that kept her from going back to being a teacher. But as long as they enjoyed the basics of life and the children were provided for, she didn't mind. Actually, she didn't care at all - most of the village folk were similarly blessed. It was a pity that Jack had needed to work such long hours these last six months, but he had never complained.  
  
She hadn't realised how much of a bond they had with their neighbours until disaster had struck them two years previously. Jack had severely beaten two men who had broken into his pottery one evening and smashed half the stock. Since there was no prospect of paying the fine he received from the Magister, he started to serve a one week gaol sentence, only to be freed one day later when the village had collected enough money on his behalf.  
  
So as Sam neared home, she knew just how much she wanted them to stay on this world, and that she shared the general viewpoint that a vast influx of commercialism through the Stargate had to be prevented. Her work was vital.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
'Samantha O'Neill is 47 today!' proclaimed the banner strung between their house and the barn. The birthday girl recognised her 11-year old daughter's handiwork and smiled. She was so proud that Kathrin was now as fluent in English as her native Latin.  
  
She made a fuss of nine-year old Bart and their youngest, Elise - now just turned five - before going indoors to freshen up before the garden party in her honour. Friends were already congregating and the barbecue was well under way. She hoped that Jack would make it back in time from the trip he had started two days before.  
  
As evening sunlight added red tints to the scene, Sam was delighted by the good wishes and simple home-made presents given to her by her extended village family. A bottle of wine, pastries and fruit treats, and a wonderfully soft hand-knitted wool scarf from Janica, her best friend who took her children to and from school. Music played on the fiddles and flutes by villagers didn't quite drown the excited chatter of adults nor the screams of younger children chasing around and laughing.  
  
Suddenly, during a brief lull in the music, someone shouted "Listen! What's that?" Silence fell, as in the distance, a sound strange to this world, and one that Sam hadn't heard for many years, got gradually louder. Her curiosity peaked as the loud vibrations seemed to enter the village and she walked quickly forward so that she could see past the barn. Her astonishment was complete when Jack rode around the corner on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and sidecar outfit and came to a stop in front of her, his face a wide grin. A smiling, silver-haired woman clad in tight-fitting black leathers unwound herself from behind him and dismounted. Up close, Sam thought she looked vaguely familiar, and observed that she was around sixty, about the same age as Jack. "Thanks, Jack!" the woman said. What *was* going on?  
  
Villagers and children crowded round at the sight of the strange arrival. After warning them to keep away from the hot engine, Jack embraced Sam and the kids, wishing her a happy birthday. "I brought a special guest." he said, turning round to introduce his passenger. "Do you remember Sylvia Siler, Sparky's wife?"  
  
"Oh, yes!" said Sam, remembering. "I'm sorry I didn't recognise you straight away! But what...?"  
  
"Don't worry, it has been twelve years." said Sylvia. "And we didn't meet that often. But I'm here just to help with the surprise." She turned round and placing two fingers in the corners of her mouth, let out a very loud, shrill whistle. They heard a second engine burst into life and moments later, her husband rode into view. On Sam's vintage Indian bike. He came to a stop in front of them, switched off and dismounted, the same huge grin on his face that Jack was sporting.  
  
Sam stood frozen to the spot, mouth agape and heart hammering. "Happy birthday, Mrs. O'Neill!" he cried. He held out the keys to her, but Sam leapt forward and threw her arms round his neck, kissing him on the cheek. A round of cheers and applause went up from the party guests.  
  
"For me?" cried Sam. "Oh, Sergeant. No, wait, I can't call you that. Sylvester? Thank you! Thank you!"  
  
"Jack calls me Sparky, and it's kinda stuck, so why don't you?" said Siler. "And don't thank me, this is Jack's doing, from start to finish!" Sam released him, turned round and jumped on Jack, arms round his neck and legs around his waist. He whirled her round once and let her down again. She ran her fingers over her prized possession, which she had long ago resigned herself to never seeing again.  
  
"How?" she asked Jack, who was trying to stop Bart and Elise from climbing up to join their mother astride the bike.  
  
"I knew I could trust Sparky. We served in the same unit in the eighties." Jack explained. "That morning we left Earth for the last time, I asked him to spirit your bike away until I could come back for it one day. He never even asked me why, did you, Sparky? This was the first chance I had to go back and get it. Anyway, I did it for a selfish reason. Now that you'll be travelling to and from the Stargate regularly, you'll be able to spend fewer nights away when the work gets under way. Oh, and here's your Government permit to use it." he added, offering her the envelope taken from his pocket.  
  
Much later that night, with the Silers bedded down and the children asleep, Sam and Jack lay in each other's arms, cooling down after the most passionate love-making that they could remember for a long, long time.  
  
"Jack, this is the most wonderful thing anyone's ever done for me." sighed Sam. "But I've got to ask, how did you manage it? The license and the Earth Stargate fee?"  
  
"The license came from the overtime I put in this last year. Sold quite a lot in a few villages I've not been to regularly. The gate fee - well, do you remember when Janet Fraiser came to see us about five years ago? I gave her power of attorney over any assets I had left back on Earth. We owe her big time. She sold my house and kept the money. I couldn't transfer any money off-world, so she kept it until something worthwhile came up."  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"I got Jacob to drop me back in Colorado in a Tel'tak and made contact with the Silers. Did you know they still belong to the local chapter of Hell's Angels? To cut a long story short, I paid the fee for their whole gang to go through the Stargate to Abydos, and kinda joined them temporarily. Then we gated here while the rest of them stayed there. They're going back day after tomorrow, less one gang member who decided to stay off-world."  
  
Sam said nothing for a little while. Then she moved her head up and kissed him on the cheek. "I don't know what to say, Jack." she whispered.  
  
"No need." murmured Jack. "Just stay a part of my life, and be you. I love you so much."  
  
Sam lay awake long after he'd gone to sleep, wondering how she could ever give back to him the love and respect he'd shown her. No answers came.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Six months later, the Nevada dialling computer eventually calculated the address of the Epsilon Eridani Stargate. A high-powered commercial franchising and mining delegation was readied for gating to a world that should be ripe for exploitation. Much to their surprise, they arrived on Chulak after exiting the event horizon. Thinking that a mistake had been made, they returned to Earth and re-dialled. This time they ended up on Edora.  
  
Six attempts, and six different planets later, the address was quarantined until such time as reliable connections could be made.  
  
Back on their home world, Sam and Jack looked on with satisfaction as their new double Stargate successfully re-routed all travellers from 'undesirable' origins, which definitely included Earth. It had been Jack's concept originally, as Sam pointed out to the government official.  
  
"I got the idea from mechanical coding machines used in World War 2 on Earth." explained Jack. "The Enigma machines connected letters to other different letters electronically, so that coded messages could be sent from a keyboard to form different letters at the receiver. I thought that two Stargates mounted together could be wired so that the second gate would activate and immediately send travellers to another world with a different address. Sam's work on calculating and establishing the connections was the easy part." he grinned. Sam punched him on the arm. "I got the Asgard to do me one last favour by delivering the second gate."  
  
"The hardest part was making the two gates work with each other instead of competing for incoming signals." said Sam. "So now there's only half a dozen worlds that can send us incoming traffic, each watched by people who can warn us if there's trouble."  
  
"Well done indeed!" said the Government inspector. "We're thinking of awarding a medal to the pair of you, in recognition of this great work."  
  
"That wouldn't be instead of paying us, would it?" asked Jack, menacingly.  
  
"I'm sorry, must rush." said the inspector, leaving quickly, and consigning the O'Neill's to a lifestyle that they didn't want to change anyway.  
  
'Hic transit gloria mundi', as they say in Latin.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 


	5. Red Shift

Red Shift  
  
"Would I do it all again?" echoed Jack, trying to formulate an answer to Teal'c's question. He wondered what was making his taciturn friend so outgoing and talkative. "What kind of a dumb question is that? I mean, when have we ever been in control of what's happened? Yeah, I know we've time looped and jumped solar flares to different years and all that... But how the heck do you expect a straight answer?"  
  
He looked across at the former Jaffa slumped comfortably in the armchair on the opposite side of the log fire in the living room. 'He's aged a lot since he lost his symbiote.' thought Jack. 'Still gonna knock the shit out of anyone that crosses him or threatens his friends, but definitely mellowing.'  
  
Teal'c eyed the glass of home-made beer that Sam had given him earlier. The potent ale was called 'Astrophysicist's Nightmare' by the O'Neill's, and it was the running family joke that if you couldn't ask for it by name, then you'd had enough for the day. He recognised that maybe the drink was nudging his conversation in this direction, but underneath that, he also had a strange feeling that the subject had to be discussed.  
  
"O'Neill, do you not believe that opportunities have existed to correct the worst mistakes we made, or to prevent the greatest injustices that we saw? That if we used the Stargates to travel back in time again, we might make amendments to improve matters for the future?" said Teal'c.  
  
Sam entered the room with three more bottles, and after handing two of them out, went to sit beside her husband. Jack automatically raised his arm across the sofa back without looking round, so that she could lean against him and have him idly massage her opposite shoulder and upper arm. Only Teal'c saw the depth of familiarity that could lead to such gestures, as neither Sam nor Jack even consciously realised that they did little things like this after twenty years of married life.  
  
"You mean, armed with twenty-twenty hindsight, we set off righting wrongs and then come back to a shiny new world? I don't think so." replied Jack. "When you remember what we actually got involved in, each new corrective mission would just come down to assassinating or neutralising a list of names. Maybe helping a few others, I don't know. But when - if - we made it back to the present, what guarantee is there that it would be *better*? How would we know?"  
  
"You would generate a different time-line after every trip." said Sam. "An alternate version of events. I suspect that our trip back to 1969 actually gave rise to the Alternate Universes we encountered via the Quantum Mirror, and look how they turned out. Nothing more wonderful in their worlds than in ours. But what about you, Teal'c? Would you change anything in your life?"  
  
"I most certainly would!" replied Teal'c, sitting up. "As First Prime, I slaughtered thousands and brought misery to untold numbers of others. Everything I have done since meeting you two is a pitiful attempt to make amends for that time. How could I not take the chance to save those people?"  
  
"But that's the whole point!" shouted Jack, disengaging his arm from around Sam and waving it in the air. "Look at where we are now! The Goa'uld are defeated, for crying out loud! We got there, Teal'c, thanks to you joining the SGC and leading the Free Jaffa in the war. You more than made amends. Don't blame yourself for what happened along the way."  
  
"Pots and kettles, Jack." Sam realised that she perhaps shouldn't be bringing up subjects like this on a personal level, but the drink was fuelling the conversational fire this evening, and Teal'c was their closest friend. "You're the biggest reservoir of unjustified guilt I've ever come across. Your first words to everyone are 'it's not your fault', but you don't extend them to yourself."  
  
"Yes, O'Neill. The personal pain that you suffered in your life would have destroyed many men." Teal'c said hurriedly. "You of all people would take the chance to..." He stopped speaking as he became aware of the startled looks on their faces. Realising what he had just said, he started, "I am sorry, my friend, I did not mean to..."  
  
"No, Teal'c, it's OK." sighed Jack after a moment. "And you're not quite right either, Sam. It must be your influence and maybe just the wisdom of old age, but I do see now that I had a kind of *insular* viewpoint in the past. I do sometimes see things from a new perspective, you know. But you also know that Charlie's death was something that I *really* was responsible for, at least in part. I'll never walk away from that."  
  
Sam looked down and felt her face reddening. Jack placed his arm back around her shoulders and squeezed her lightly, causing her to glance back up at him and smile. His next words brought a lump to her throat.  
  
"I wouldn't change anything, anything at all. Not now. Because whatever else my life may have done, it's given me twenty years of happiness with you, and three kids we're proud of. And to have your support and true friendship, Teal'c. Kinda selfish, I suppose, but that's how it is."  
  
Teal'c smiled and raised his glass in salute. As the tension of the moment subsided, Sam playfully dipped her finger in Jack's beer and brushed it across his lips. They laughed together, knowing that tonight would probably turn out later to be one of their very special memories.  
  
Trust Jack O'Neill, however, to add a new dimension to the conversation.  
  
"But there is one thing that perhaps ought to be changed, if not in the past, then certainly now." he said.  
  
"What's that?" asked Sam. "Hockey league tables back on Earth? Fish stocks in Minnesota lakes?" Teal'c smiled at that.  
  
"No." said Jack. "Maybe the whole Stargate network ought to be closed down until someone or something finds out how to stop the Universe from falling apart."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"Have you been reading my Astrophysics Journals again, Jack?" asked Sam. "The non-mathematical bits, anyway."  
  
"Well, yeah, but I also used the Asgard computer to see if they had any data on what I thought I saw." agreed Jack.  
  
"Which was?"  
  
"Well, I read that back in 1998, Earth astronomers started turning up evidence that the speed at which the Universe is expanding has increased since the time of the Big Bang, when creation began."  
  
"That's right." said Sam, at first surprised that Jack was aware of such an obscure theory, but then realising that his lifelong interest in astronomy kept him involved. "Ever since it was accepted that the universe had a measurable origin in time and has been expanding from the first explosion, people have been arguing whether it will continue to expand forever, or slow down and then collapse again in the Big Crunch. Sooner or later someone would find further data that would prove one theory or the other. It was just a bit of a surprise to find that distant clusters of galaxies are actually accelerating away from each other."  
  
"Why would they do that?" asked Jack. Seeing Sam take a deep breath before speaking, he held up his hand. "Ah! In words that I can follow, Brains. This is me and Teal'c you're talking to, remember."  
  
"Well, put like that, we don't really know." admitted Sam sheepishly. "But what's this got to do with shutting down Stargates?" Teal'c nodded in the background.  
  
"Two Stargates create a wormhole, right?" said Jack. "And clever software and hardware converts matter to energy at one end and back again at the other." The others nodded again.  
  
"How much energy does it take to form a wormhole?" Jack continued. "Don't answer that, Sam, I already know that it's a very, very big number. Because the only places that wormholes form naturally in space are inside Black Holes. And even a small Black Hole can squash ten times the Sun's mass into a ball the size of New York City, right? So where does the energy come from to form the wormholes between Stargates?"  
  
"Well, the Gates draw the energy from subspace." said Sam. "They're giant superconductors made from Naquadah metal, which has the unique property of being a superconductor for electricity in our three-dimensional space-time but emitting high radiation into subspace."  
  
"And subspace is what we can't see, but we assume is kind of the fourth and fifth dimensions attached to our 3D space-time?" asked Jack.  
  
"Yes, that's right!" said Sam, the depth of Jack's understanding surprising her even after their years together. "The wormholes exist in subspace, connecting together distant points in our space by a kind of extra- dimensional short-cut.  
  
"But what if subspace energy is the 'glue' that holds our 3D space together?" Jack continued. "Suppose it regulates the force of gravity that controls the expansion rate of 3D space. If we're draining it off by repeated massive use of a large number of Stargates, then sooner or later you'd see changes. Like maybe a speeding up of the expansion rate, for instance?"  
  
Sam was stunned into silence. Jack knew just from looking at her face that her mind was now fully engaged in compartmentalising the ideas they'd been discussing, and she would soon disappear to get her notebook. She'd long ago grown out of working all night on complex problems - age does that to you - but she would be up at dawn, just itching to get a chance to start manipulating the data. He also knew that, when she'd finished making notes and was ready to retire tonight, she'd be as excited as hell. Grateful to him for giving her new food for thought. And as playful as anything... It wasn't really why he had started the conversation. No, really it wasn't.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Jack had never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth, though, especially when Sam got into bed with that gleam in her eye. After all these years, he knew all the spots and actions that made her passionate, or ecstatic, or just plain happy. And tonight he had explored nearly all of them, being rewarded with her prolonged sighs and groans and squeals of contentment. Those sounds still turned him on more than anything. But tonight, she was driven by something else, an excitement, an almost feverish desire to throw herself into any and every position that felt good.  
  
As he lay on his back in the final moments of restraint, matching her movements as she squirmed about above him, Sam started to shake all over and called, "Jack! Oh Jack, oh..ah!", sending him over the edge with a fury he hadn't felt for a while.  
  
The earth moved for them. Literally.  
  
"Jack!" screamed Sam. "Jack, what the hell...?!" They were bathed in a familiar white light, which soon faded to reveal that they were still in the same position, but now lying naked, red-faced and breathing heavily, on the floor of an Asgard battle cruiser.  
  
"Oh crap." sighed Jack, his head thudding back onto the floor. "Thor! For crying out loud!"  
  
"Good evening, O'Neill's." said Thor in his deadpan voice. "A matter of some urgency has arisen that requires your attention."  
  
Sam and Jack stayed motionless, staring at each other. Finally, Jack exhaled and whispered to her, "You gotta love those guys." A nervous smile briefly crossed her face.  
  
"Thor, ol' buddy," called Jack, turning to face his alien friend, "no *urgent matter* in this life is more important than getting us back home right now, this instant!" His voiced was getting louder with each word. "Because if we have to start walking around your ship in our birthday suits, you're gonna need a whole string of cloned bodies ready if you wanna be eating breakfast tomorrow morning!"  
  
"My apologies." replied Thor. "I will return you to your house, but will call again in twenty minutes." Another flash of white light saw Sam and Jack back on their bed, still in the same intimate position. Sam collapsed onto Jack's chest, and as he ran his hands lazily up and down her back, she could feel him laughing.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"I think we just joined the Mile High club." whispered Jack. "D'ya think we'll need all the twenty minutes to dressed and ready?"  
  
"Don't even think about it. You're at the chivalrous age now." she giggled, rolling off him and disappearing towards the bathroom. "Once a king, always a king.."  
  
"But once a knight is enough." he finished for her.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Teal'c had readily agreed to stay at their house to watch over the kids when they told him about the Asgard's request for their presence. Moments later they were back on Thor's ship.  
  
"I regret the inconvenience of this meeting." said Thor. "But I must say that I do not understand why you were engaged in the human procreational act when it is the case that you cannot produce further offspring."  
  
"Just think of it as cloning for the fun of it." said Jack. "You know, fun? Something you folks get up to on a Saturday night?"  
  
Thor just stared at him, the limpid pools of his eyes conveying the expression of strained tolerance that a person of lofty ideals shows to someone who can never be serious.  
  
"What can we do for you, Thor?" asked Sam. "Why the urgency?"  
  
Thor shifted in his floating chair. "O'Neill, you recently used our computer terminal to gather data on gravitational forces in the Universe." Jack nodded in response. "You have alerted us to a possibility that the Asgard has not given any thought to for many tens of thousands of your years. Namely, that extensive use of the Stargates is drawing on subspace energy to the point where the Universe itself is being affected."  
  
"Er, yeah, I guess. But is this *urgent*?" said Jack. "It was only a crazy idea. I'm not a scientist, just someone fascinated by the stars. Sam's the one who can tell us whether I've got it all wrong. Why do you need me here anyway?" Jack was reminded of the Emperor Napoleon's reaction to being given the request to plant poplar trees along the roads of France to shade marching armies. ('How long will it take to become effective?' '20 years.' 'Well, there's no time to lose, then! We must start immediately.')  
  
"Because it is predestined that you, and only you, will make the decision regarding our next actions. This much has been future-determined in our own simulations of time-lines and outcomes." replied Thor.  
  
"Let me get this straight." interrupted Sam. "We can all model present/future scenarios. But how can you know that Jack is your decision maker? Why haven't you decided what to do for yourselves?"  
  
"O'Neill possesses a very rare ability, although he does not know it, Samantha." continued Thor. "As you yourself are aware, he is capable of seeing beyond the immediate consequences of a set of observable facts, unencumbered by a detailed understanding of the circumstances. His decisions for the most part turn out to be the most expedient."  
  
"Hello?" said Jack. "You mean, I'm thick enough to be lucky? Suppose I just tossed a coin and made a decision on that call?"  
  
"If you decided that it was a means to resolve our choices, then we would accept that, too." replied Thor. "Do not doubt me on this, O'Neill. All our analyses of the probabilities of past, present and future events show increases in entropy when your personality is factored into the field equations. You may not believe in such 'destiny', but in this case, backed by all our research, we do."  
  
Jack stood in silence, aware of Sam and Thor staring at him, but he could not come to terms with what he had just been told. Looking up, he asked, "Just what do you want me to decide for you?"  
  
"We have the means to close down the entire Stargate network." replied Thor. "The question is whether we should do that."  
  
"How is that possible?" said Sam, unable to resist the question.  
  
"You will have seen that most Stargates have seven chevrons." Thor replied. "One in every thousand gates has nine: the Earth was fortunate in possessing two such. Otherwise they are distributed relatively evenly around the known universe. You already know that the Asgard can only be contacted via the eighth chevron. We can utilise the ninth chevron to dial all seven-chevron gates in their localities and render them inoperative. The nine-chevron gates would only be reactivated when it has been agreed that such an event is safe and desirable."  
  
"What about spaceships travelling through wormholes?" asked Sam. "Wouldn't that keep using up subspace energy?"  
  
"Without access to plentiful supplies of high-energy metals like Naquadria, planet-bound races would be unable to build them in any numbers." Thor said. "And the Asgard would not act in an irresponsible way. We would place our fleets in storage."  
  
"So what difference will it make if the Stargates are switched off or not?" asked Jack.  
  
Thor floated to a control panel and moved some shell-like objects around. The room lights dimmed, the walls becoming invisible, and a vast three- dimensional model of the Universe filled the room and beyond. Jack was struck immediately by how beautiful it looked.  
  
"Here is the Universe in its current state, 13 billion years from the Big Bang, as you call it." explained Thor. "It is expanding faster and faster, so that distant galaxies will become invisible within a measurable time limit. If we project backwards in time," he said, manipulating the controls so that the image shrunk inwards to a smaller radius, "we can see that at this point, the Ancients completed their Stargate network. Now let us project forward again, but assuming that the Gates were not in use." The image expanded again, but this time to a smaller size than originally. "The Universe is not so large, and is expanding much more slowly. It would in fact have taken around 1 billion more years to reach the stage that it actually is now. Furthermore, the projected life of the visible Universe in this state is many times longer than is the case now."  
  
"But if the damage is done, what difference will switching off the Gates now make?" said Sam.  
  
Thor ran the simulation again, showing the effects of doing just that. "The Universe continues to expand, but has a lifetime of some 2 billion years longer than if we continue to use the Gates."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Jack could still not believe that the decision lay with him, or understand why he had been placed in this position. After twelve hours of argument, questions and discussions on the Asgard ship, Thor returned them to their house, with the request that he contact them with a decision within two weeks.  
  
During the following days, Jack spent many hours alone, sitting in his favourite spot on the hill overlooking the village, or going through the motions of working in his pottery. Then after a week, he turned up at the village school at noon, and got Sam to leave for the rest of the day. He took her up to 'his' hillside and they sat for a while in silence. She could see the strain on his face and in his heart, and so said nothing until he was ready.  
  
"It comes down to this." sighed Jack, taking her hand in his. "Either we let our children and everyone continue to live their lives, for untold generations to come, with the freedom to travel wherever they can, and with all the benefits that they can experience."  
  
Sam nodded and waited some more.  
  
"Or we give future generations - future, as in so far ahead that we can't visualise it - a lifeline, but in the process throw our entire civilisation into a new Dark Age. Some choice!"  
  
"Why don't you just tell the Asgard that you can't make a decision?" asked Sam. "It's hardly fair, what they're asking you to do."  
  
"I thought about that, too." said Jack. "But they believe in me, don't you see, so I can't duck out of this one. If they say I make a difference, then who am I to argue?" He turned to her and caressed her cheek with his free hand. "Sam, there's one thing I must know. I need *you* to believe in me, whatever the decision. I shouldn't be asking this for myself, seeing as how the subject is so much bigger than any of us. But I couldn't stand living the rest of my life knowing that you would be upset with me over this. I'm not asking you to decide for me. I'm asking for more loyalty than it's right to ask anyone for."  
  
Sam smiled and placed her arm round his neck. Tears sprang to her eyes and she whispered, "Jack, I know you'd give your life for me and the kids. You'll never have to worry that I wouldn't do the same for you. Whatever you decide, I'm with you. I love you so much."  
  
They clung to each other for a long time. When they stood up, Jack felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. They walked arm in arm, his answer to the Asgard now as obvious as all hell.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXX 


End file.
